it shaped their culture, shaped their religion, and shaped their individual personalities. so slavery was central to southern life. but slavery was also an institution, a form of property, that contained a problem. a problem for the masters. this valuable form of property was capable of thinking. capable of yearning for freedom. and capable of acting upon that yearning. this man, joshua speed, a kentucky slave owner, who is a friend of abraham lincoln's, put it this way. slave property is unlike any other. it is the only property in the world that has loco motion and a behind to croyle. and he went ton say that whys the owners of such property are so sensitive about any outside interference with it. their masters fear left them convinced their labors could be kept, controlled, and worked profitably only if they were kept uneducated, uninformed, isolated from dangerous influences, closely watched, intimidated, and convinced that their status as slaves was permanent and unchangeable. to accomplish that, so-communities and state legislatures made it a crime to teach slaves to